Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laundry treatment apparatus.
Discussion of the Related Art
A laundry treatment apparatus is a generic term of home appliances including a washing machine for washing laundry, a laundry treatment apparatus for drying laundry, and a combined drying and washing machine for both washing and drying laundry.
Meanwhile, a laundry treatment apparatus capable of drying laundry (i.e. washed clothing) may be divided into an exhaust type laundry treatment apparatus and a circulation type laundry treatment apparatus.
More specifically, a laundry treatment apparatus may be divided into the exhaust type laundry treatment apparatus which is configured to discharge hot and humid air discharged from a drum to the outside of the laundry treatment apparatus, and the circulation type laundry treatment apparatus using a heat exchanger that implements condensation and heating of air discharged from a drum while hot and humid air discharged from the drum is resupplied into the drum (i.e. during circulation of air discharged from the drum).
The air discharged from the drum during drying may contain impurities (e.g., lint) dropped from an object to be dried, such as laundry. Accumulation of the impurities on internal components of the laundry treatment apparatus may cause breakdown of the laundry treatment apparatus, and the impurities discharged outward from the laundry treatment apparatus may cause air contamination of an indoor space where the laundry treatment apparatus is placed. Therefore, the laundry treatment apparatus having a drying function needs to remove the impurities from the air discharged from the drum.
A typical laundry treatment apparatus having a drying function includes a connection duct arranged in a height direction of a drum, and a discharge duct arranged in a longitudinal direction of the drum. The connection duct is provided with a filter to filter air discharged from the drum.
However, the size of the laundry treatment apparatus is generally determined according to national standards from around the world, and thus increasing the length of the connection duct (i.e. the length of the connection duct arranged in a height direction of the drum) is not easy. This is because increase in the length of the connection duct causes increase in the volume of the laundry treatment apparatus.
Such difficulty in increase in the length of the connection duct causes difficulty in increasing the filtration capacity of the filter provided at the connection duct of the typical laundry treatment.
In addition, the typical laundry treatment apparatus is inconvenient because a user needs to clean the filter whenever the user uses the laundry treatment apparatus after checking the quantity of impurities accumulated on the filter, in order to prevent deterioration of drying efficiency.
In the case of the typical laundry treatment apparatus, furthermore, the user has difficulty in judging whether or not the filter is mounted in the laundry treatment apparatus and therefore, the user may accidentally operate the laundry treatment apparatus despite the filter not being mounted in the laundry treatment apparatus.
In addition, the typical laundry treatment apparatus has no function of judging the quantity of impurities remaining on the filter, and may not inform the user of a cleaning time of the filter.